Bolt Prospects 2005-2006 Final Rankings: Honorable Mentions

Three times a season we post our rankings of who we feel are the top 25 prospects in the Lightning organization. A prospect, under our criteria, is any player who was 23 or under on opening night this season with less than 82 games of career experience in the NHL and has not played 41 or more games at the NHL level in any single season. Three prospects crossed the threshold for graduation last season: [url=paul-ranger]Paul Ranger[3][/url], [url=evgeny-artyukhin]Evgeny Artyukhin[4][/url] and [url=ryan-craig]Ryan Craig[5].[/url] As a consequence, you'll note we've moved these three onto a new section on our prospects page titled "Bolt Prospects Alumni". With those three moved out of the pool of players elligible for consideration, the Bolt Prospects writers generated their own rankings and then combined them to generate our final top-25. The Honorable Mentions we are revealing today are two players whose names made the ballots at least once, but who did not have enough combined votes to make the top 25. We think they still deserve some recognition, however, so today we're posting our 2005-2006 Final Rankings Honorable Mentions in alphabetical order:
[b]D [url=pj-atherton]PJ Atherton[/url], 23 years old, 6'2" 190 lbs, Springfield (AHL)[/b]
[i]Springfield (AHL) 9 GP, 1-3-4, 4 PIM, -3
Minnesota (WCHA) 41 GP, 1-6-7, 68 PIM[/i]
As of this posting, it's still uncertain whether or not Atherton will be signed during this offseason, but what Bolt Prospects saw during his ATO with Springfield at the end of the year was encouraging. Atherton is a hard working gamer who always finishes his checks. He was guilty of overhandling the puck and trying to do too much in his brief stint with the Falcons, but under the microscope of what essentially amounted to a 9 game tryout with his professional future at stake, we understand. Atherton is a competent skater who, if he resolves to play a simplified stay at home game, we could see evolving into a Nolan Pratt type #6/7 defenseman in the NHL. Question is, will he get the opportunity with the Lightning?
[b]D [url=jay-rosehill]Jay Rosehill[6][/url], 20 years old, 6'3" 195 lbs, Johnstown (ECHL)[/b]
[i]Springfield (AHL) 45 GP, 1-1-2, 68 PIM -27
Johnstown (ECHL) 5 GP, 0-0-0 13 PIM -2[/i]
In terms of actual game experience, Rosehill is one of the youngest members of the Lightning organization after playing 50 or less games in each of the last three seasons in the AJHL, WCHA and this year between the AHL and ECHL. Rosehill defied conventional wisdom by sticking with the Falcons for most of the season as their 6th/7th defenseman and the 2003 7th round pick showed flashes of becoming the steady, physical stay at home defenseman the team envisions him becoming. Rosehill needs much more developmental time going forward if he is going to reach his potential, but there were times early in the year he resembled a poor man's Jassen Cullimore.
[b]Bolt Prospects 2005-2006 Final Rankings[/b]
[b][url=http://www.boltprospects.com/prospects]Top Twenty Five[/url][/b]
[i]Coming Soon[/i]
[b][url=http://www.boltprospects.com/node/1131]Honorable Mentions[/url][/b]
D [url=pj-atherton]PJ Atherton[/url], 23 years old, 6'2" 190 lbs, Springfield (AHL)
D [url=jay-rosehill]Jay Rosehill[/url], 20 years old, 6'3" 195 lbs, Johnstown (ECHL)
[b][url=http://www.boltprospects.com/node/1129]Top Five Overage Prospects[/url][/b]
LW [url=zdenek-blatny]Zdenek Blatny[/url], 25 years old, 6'1" 195 lbs, Springfield (AHL)
G [url=johan-holmqvist]Johan Holmqvist[7][/url], 28 years old, 6'3" 185 lbs, Brynas (SWE)
C [url=jason-jaspers]Jason Jaspers[/url], 25 years old, 5'11" 207 lbs, Springfield (AHL)
RW [url=norm-milley]Norm Milley[/url], 26 years old, 6'0" 195 lbs, Springfield (AHL)
G [url=fredrik-norrena]Fredrik Norrena[8][/url], 32 years old, 6'0" 195 lbs, Linkopings (SWE)